Giving Voice to the Diaspora: Urdu Language, Poetry & 'Rabab' on a Glasgow Rooftop

For a generation raised between languages, Urdu is often something overheard. Nuqta Studio turns it into something you can walk through, listen to and finally claim. What happens when you infuse language with its culture, its poetry with the history of its region, and its music with the collective identity of its people? You get an exhibition that weaves language, poetry and music into a single immersive narrative.

Conceived by Nuqta Studio, the exhibition, which concluded Scotland’s autumn season with the folk music of the ‘rabab’, was held on the roof of ‘Namak Mandi’, a widely recognised place for South Asian cuisine. Talha Imam, the chief curator, and his team traversed three intertwined realms: South Asian culture, the interconnected history of Persian and Urdu, and the poetry written in them. What makes it experiential is the interplay of all these elements with the live rabab music, carrying a sound that felt both intimate and deeply historical.

“We are giving a voice to the diaspora,”says Talha Imam, when asked what motivated him to curate such an exhibition.

As you enter, the doors open onto a timeline of Urdu typography suspended from the ceiling, displaying the trajectory of its literature across ten centuries. The next section exhibits an installation featuring 60 variations of women’s cultural attire from the South Asian region, each distinctly different from the rest.

Sixty variations of women's traditional attire from across the South Asian region, from Wakhi & Balti to Sindhi to Parsi. Photo: the author

Across roughly eight sections, each suspended artistic piece offers an insight into the intricacies of South Asian culture. Between each installation rises a carved wooden screen of multiple panels, each delicately framed and separated by slender wooden slats, the intricate latticework casting shadows as light dances through its ornate patterns. The strings vibrate under the skilful hands of an Afghan musician, the composition melodic and rhythmic, each song earthy and resonant of a rich heritage, the selection of musical pieces symbolic and soothing. With the Scottish sun setting against the autumn sky, it was a sight to behold. Those who belonged to the culture found themselves lingering in the maternal affiliation of a collective history, and those who were new to it felt embraced.

A riddle-poem by Amir Khusrow on 'Surma' (Kohl), framed by a carved wooden screen. Photo: the author

Literary pieces spanning several centuries, with poets grouped by theme, were not only showcased but also translated, alongside the socio-political context of their era. Ghalib’s poetry, they say, encompasses “hope, emotional uplift and affirmation”, while another poet, Mir, captured the “despair, pessimism and melancholy” of life in his verses. Those who have read them might compare the two as “rapture vs ache”, or perhaps as the poets’ expressions of “exultation vs lament”. Under Imam’s curation, the sections on these poets stood side by side, presenting celebratory poetry against elegiac poetry: a remarkable choice. “I wanted to capture Urdu in all its capacity, as wholesome as it could be,” he says, when asked what guided his selection.

Poetry was once laced with heavier topics; now it captures the trivial as well, and will not let it go ignored. When asked, “Do you think something changed along the way?”, Imam replies:

“Not changed, ‘EVOLVED’… What went unnoticed earlier can no longer escape the eye of a modern generation… perhaps this was needed as well.”

A 'rabab' player performs at Nuqta Studio's exhibition. Photo: the author (digitally edited)

As the evening drew to its close, the exhibition lingered long after the final notes of the rabab had faded. What Nuqta Studio offered was not nostalgia, but recognition – a space where language, memory and music converged. It was an encounter that invited belonging, whether through remembrance or discovery, leaving audiences quietly moved and unmistakably connected.